stikpusher

Anytime my friend.  But I must wonder about old Walter up there.. frontal or rear view? And they think we have restrictions... ;-)

Eric, nice to see the tracks on, looking sweet. Revell does have two 1/72nd kits of the S-100 and Italeri has a 35th kit. I hope to do one of the Revell kits for the 45 GB.

Gamera, we will see . My rear is well covered.

Eric: Looking good! The mud on the running gear came out really nice.

Now that you have tracks you can use your superior speed and agility to run around and shoot Bish's Panther in the backside....

Cromwell is coming along. Tracks are on, but the tank is buttoned and in reverse - 7th AD did overtime duty in North Africa and no reason to lead with our chin near Caen. Lots left to do on pigments and then camo.

Stik: pity there isn't a bigger kit of your subject. All that wood would make for some very fun weathering. I've got the old Revell 1/72 PT109 with PE. I bought a 1/72 Hasegawa Jeep towing a 37mm gun so I could stick it on the deck. Not sure the old lady would be worth the effort, but we'll see.

Anytime my friend.  But I must wonder about old Walter up there.. frontal or rear view? And they think we have restrictions... ;-)

Right, thanks stik, that explains the ANG on the side of the bridge. Spanner thrown

68, nice work on the Mustang.

Bish

Thanks. If that is the case, I am not sure how they tell one boat from another. A few seem to have their ID number, but not many.

Just as I think I am getting to grips with German equipment, they throw another spanner in the works.

From my few hours of web research...   Individual boat markings seem to be in two places: on the sides of the cockpit/bridge- based upon the commanding officer...

(over the 8th Flotilla leaping stag)

and/or on the stern

go pick up that spanner and throw it back across the Channel 

NIce- she's really starting to look like a P-51!

Thanks. If that is the case, I am not sure how they tell one boat from another. A few seem to have their ID number, but not many.

Just as I think I am getting to grips with German equipment, they throw another spanner in the works.

Now that's what being a modeler is all about 214 ;-)

Bish, this kit came with those same markings for S-204. From the research I have done over the past few days many of the S boot Flotillas had some sort of unit insignia.

My thoughts exactly stik. I think I am going to take the chance and buy it. Before I do, I'm gonna do a test fit on the wings to determine an idea of how much work I may have to do to make it fit.

Right, I didn't realise it was a Flotilla badge. The Revell kit has that but its a different boat, S-204 that surrendered to the British in 1945. I had assumed it was personal to that boat. Thanks for the info.

Thank you guys.

Bish, yes, that is the panther badge of the 4th S-boot flotilla on the side partially visible in the photo that I posted.

Gamera, that rib work is snowballing. I add something, go back and check my reference photos, and find something else that might be visible so I decide to add it.

It can likely be done with some extra work on your part to make the parts fit.

As some of you know, not only I'm working on a P-47 Thunderbolt for this Group Build, I also decided to do a Hellcat instead of the Spitfire as originally planned. With that in mind, I noticed the Hellcat Mk.I has gun barrels on the wingtips as opposed to the Hellcats in the Navy during WW2. Since the 1/48th scale Hellcat kit is Hobby Boss brand ( www.1001modelkits.com/.../17137-grumman-hellcat-mk-i-1-48-hobby-boss-aircraft-model-kit-80360.html ), I'm having a tough go at finding aftermarket conversion kit for the gun barrels. The only one I found are Quickboost brand but they're designed to be assembled with Eduard Hellcat kit (item # QB48190). My question: is it possible that I could use it on a Hobby Boss Hellcat kit?

This is the gun barrel conversion kit by Quickboost I'm looking at:

www.1001modelkits.com/.../28320-grumman-f6f-3-hellcat-gun-barrels-late-designed-to-be-assembled-with-model-kits-from-eduard-1-48-quickboost-by-aires-.html

Any help is appreciated.

SP: Nice work there on both the B-26 and the Alphabet-boat. You're making crazy progress there on the Schnellboat (fast boat -fast build???) and the ribbing on the B-26 is really impressive.

That's looking great Stik. Is that the Panther badge on the side of the boat. Nice work on the marauder as well.

Greg, ye, stik is right on that, S-Boot's and E-Boat's are the same thing.

Thanks Pyr. S-boot (schnellboot) is the German name, E-boat (enemy boat) the Allied name for the same type of craft.

Eric: your tank weathering looks great.

Stik: the S-boot looks cool.....been thinking of getting one or an E-boot.

I have also made some more progress on the rear of my Marauder. 

Here are the seat back pads for the gunners jump seats that I made the other nite using some of teh kit sprue sanded to shape

and the final bulkheads than I have made for the tail gunners position. I still need to add a bit more work back here, but in a day or two I should have all of that completed.

more to come in the next few days...

The and the boot both look great.

Stik, it's obvious that the Panther shot the running gear off of E's tank. It's supposed to look like that.  

EB, that looks good indeed. But without any running gear it's still a sitting duck for Bish's Panther. 

Well since my research turned up that Hoffman was in a Torpedoboot and not a Schnellboot I had to do a bit more research to come up with an idea for markings. I decided up S-188, which was part of the 4th Schnellboot Flotilla. As shown in this photo taken after an engagement with the Allied fleet on June 7/8, she did see some action

She was sunk, along with many other S-boots and Torpedo Boots on June 14 during a major RAF daylight raid on La Havre harbor on June 14. Apparently the small surface components were enough of a nuisance to rate a major daylight raid, led by 617 Squadron, to shut them down. 

So anyways today I applied a final coat of MM Schnellboot Weiss onto the hull, after having given the touch up primer several days to dry and cure.

and finally, I glued the lower hull to the upper hull.

Tomorrow I plan on a coat of Future and then I can begin decaling and weathering once that has dried.

Very cool Eric, I like the streaking. I've got those books, read though them, but so far haven't had the courage to try them out.

That's looking very good, Eric.  It's coming along nicely!

Nice Eric, I like that.

Basic weathering - a lot of it new to me but not to Mike Rinaldi - done. Thinking of a relatively new tank (hardly "showroom" - all allied ground units went through intense training before D-Day) after three weeks dodging 88 shells near Caen. No rust, very little chipping but lot of dirt and grime. (Engine oil and pigments to come, so there will be more.) No such thing as a clean tank near the front lines. The tools will give it a little more visual interest. Then I'll try to make it look like a bush so Jerry won't notice us until the Americans break out.

Eric

Thanks gamera, and don't worry, your not the only one. I knocked off a couple of pieces as I was taking it to the spray booth.I would show some pics. But as I used Mr Surfacer 1200, which is light grey, and the kit is light grey, guess what. Its still light grey. Was a real pain to get on as I couldn't tell what I had and had not covered.

Bish: That does look good! I think I've said before if I use that much PE it gets to the point I'm knocking off two parts for every one I add. My hat's off to you sir!

Bob: Looks good there too! Nice to see that ramp able to drop now.

Your LCVP is looking good Bob.  This is one of my favorite builds in this GB.  Thanks for all the progress pics!

Thanks guys.  Stik, I think I'm going to leave it on.  I have seen a few pictures of LCVPs with the rope bumper like the one on the kit, although most didn't.  Unless I can think of a way to fix it it'll stay.